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Tag Archives: Chicago

Chicago is planning to hand over 19 acres of public parkland, occupying a prime lakefront site, to a private entity, for a nominal sum, in order to build a monument to Barack Hussein Obama.

Now a Chicago nonprofit, Protect Our Parks, filed a lawsuit Monday in federal court alleging, according to the Chicago Tribune, that:

… established law precludes the Park District from arbitrarily transferring possession, use and control of this dedicated ‘open, clear and free’ public parkland in Jackson Park to a private nongovernmental … entity’s self-determined use,” the complaint says.

The complaint cites an “institutional bait and switch” because the original plan was for a federal entity to take possession of the land and build an Obama Presidential Library, which would be publicly owned and controlled. That was the bait used to obtain priceless open park land that would be taken away from the citizens of Chicago. The switch came when the presidential library plan was sidelined, and in its place was instituted a “presidential center” that would be under the control of a private foundation, with Barack Obama himself in a position to shape the center’s planning, mission, and operations toward whatever ends he desires.

No longer would public archives and historical documents be available for scholars and the public to peruse and come to their own conclusions about the Obama presidency. That is the sort of public purpose, under public control, that justifies handing over precious park land. In its place is a monument to Obama, built by his friends and supporters, in the pursuit of whatever goals and glory are determined by the private entity. As plans now stand, community organizing classes and basketball courts are part of the future for the formerly public spaces.

As a private entity with no public control, the Obama Presidential Center’s ability to grab public land is questionable, according to the lawsuit’s reading of the relevant statutes.

Protect Our Parks is more confrontational than another, better known, group, Friends of the Parks, which has had reservations about the details of the Presidential Center plans but has not challenged the legality of handing over parkland.

Unsurprisingly:

… the city framed the lawsuit as a roadblock to economic progress for the South Side.

“The Obama Presidential Center is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to invest hundreds of millions of dollars that will create good jobs on the South Side, bring our communities together and honor the legacy of Chicago’s favorite son and daughter. While some choose to stand in the way of progress for the South Side, we are focused on making progress in every community in Chicago,” the statement read.

In my view, if Obama’s friends want to raise money to put up a monument glorifying him, they have every right to do so and even can probably justify tax deductibility for their contributions, though in turn they must avoid overtly partisan exhibits. But confiscating park space and handing it over for a nominal sum to a group with no public control or accountability is not legal, according to the lawsuit. Public officials already have been caught short-circuiting required reviews of the OPC. It’s time to get the thumbs off the scales of justice and treat this private corporation for what it is, not as public entity, which it is not.

Another day in the life of the poster city for one-party Democrat rule, where pensions eat up taxes and incompetence is rewarded. And Chicago’s reputation as the crime capital of America and home to the catch and release policy of dealing with criminals remains secure.

A man who threatened another Pulse nightclub massacre was released in a monumental cock-up by the Cook County Sheriff’s Department. CWB Chicago reports:

Two major developments unfolded Wednesday evening in the case of Shane Sleeper, a 31-year-old man who was accused in February of threatening to bring a Pulse Nightclub-like mass murder to Chicago’s Boystown.

America’s mass shooting capital isn’t somewhere out west where you can get a gun at the corner store. It’s in Obama’s own hometown.

Chicago is America’s mass shooting capital. There were over 400 shootings with more than one victim. In 95 of those shootings, 3 or more people were shot.

2,995 people were shot in Chicago last year. Shootings were up, way up, in Baltimore. With an assist from Al Sharpton and #BlackLivesMatter, Baltimore beat out Detroit. But Detroit is still in the running. Chicago, Baltimore and Detroit all have something in common, they’re all run by the party of gun control which somehow can’t seem to manage to control the criminals who have the guns.

The murder rate in Washington, D.C., home of the progressive boys and girls who can solve it all, is up 54%. The capital of the national bureaucracy has also been the country’s murder capital.

These cities are the heartland of America’s real gun culture. It isn’t the bitter gun-and-bible clingers in McCain and Romney territory who are racking up a more horrifying annual kill rate than Al Qaeda; it’s Obama’s own voting base.

Shocker! The Swiss recently raised their terror alert and are hunting for four Syrians who are planning attacks against Switzerland and cities in the US including Chicago. They are also planning attacks in Toronto and Geneva. The US intelligence services are the ones that tipped them off.

Two Syrians were arrested in Switzerland but it’s not known if they are tied to the other four. They had traces of explosives in their car.

The four are believed to be part of the Mourad Fares network. Fares is a known recruiter for jihad in Syria. French intelligence sources say he’s worked for ISIS, mainly in Francophone countries, and in Switzerland, including in Geneva.

ISIS has been threatening terror attacks in Switzerland for months and a January video encouraged an attack in Switzerland.

A photo of the four terrorists has been released so if you see these men, notify the US authorities who released the photo.

The photo was allegedly sent by US authorities and shows the suspects sitting holding up the Daesh finger sign with their faces hidden – this is the politically correct version I suppose. Hopefully the Swiss authorities have photos without their faces blocked.

The terrorists are tied to one of the Paris attackers at the Bataclan.

If they succeed in attacking a US city, will it be gun violence or workplace violence?

The Paris terrorist attacks bring to mind the frightening case of an Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) operative arrested in Chicago last fall and released earlier this year to serve probation in Illinois for a state crime that secretly drew federal intervention.

His name is Emad Karakrah, the ringleader of a sophisticated narco-terror operation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) facilitated his release from Cook County Jail in January. Judicial Watch uncovered Karakrah’s terrorism record and has reported extensively on his extremist activities, including a 2009 plot to bomb talk-show host Oprah Winfrey’s Chicago studios and the iconic Sears Tower. In late August of last year Karakrah was arrested after leading police on a high-speed chase through Chicago streets as an ISIS flag waved from his car. When Chicago Police finally stopped and arrested Karakrah, he told officers his car was rigged with explosives that would detonate if searched. Bomb disposal units secured the vehicle without incident, but Karakrah’s arrest helped expose a narco-terrorist network with roots and financing in El Paso, Texas.

Lawlessness: Fueled by this president’s anti-police policies and race-baiting rhetoric, thugs are attacking cops and terrorizing major cities. Horrible violence is breaking out all over. We are witnessing a national crime wave.

Law enforcement expects to see an escalation in criminal activity over the summer. Already we’ve seen a disturbing trend in May, including: